With some important international assignments lined up in the next few months, top archers of the country will be eager to show their class in the third leg of the three-day National ranking archery tournament starting at the Yamuna Sports Complex here from Friday.
The ranking event will serve as the selection trials for the third and fourth legs of the World Cup, to be held at Medelin, Columbia (from July 15 to 21), and Wroclaw, Poland (from August 19 to 25).
Besides, it will also be the basis to pick the Indian team for the second Asian Grand Prix, to be held in Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar from July 27 to August 2.
Altogether 127 elite and junior archers, including the National campers and some top finishers in different National championships, will be seen in action in the prize money event.
Elite archers
However, the focus will be on elite athletes such as Deepika Kumari, L. Bombayla Devi, Chekrovulo Swuro, Dola Banerjee in the women’s recurve section and Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee, Rajib Basumatary and Atanu Das in men’s recurve.
Deepika had claimed a silver medal in the individual women’s recurve event in the first leg of the World Cup in Shanghai, China, in May last. She had teamed up with Jayanta Talukdar to take the mixed team silver too.
The trio of Gagandeep Kaur, Trisha Deb and P. Lily Chanu had bagged the women’s compound bronze.
In the second leg in Antalya, Turkey, earlier this month, the recurve archers had returned empty-handed while the duo of Manjudha Soy and Rajat Chauhan had got the compound mixed silver.
Prominent compound archers such as Kh. Ratan Singh, M. Gandhi Singh and Rajat Chauhan among men and Gagandeep, Trisha, Lily and Manjudha will also be keen to excel in this competitive field.
Good competition
“Overall, the quality of competition will be good.
“All the top archers are doing well at the moment and will give their 100 per cent,” said Dharmender Tiwari, a coach with the Indian team.
Tiwari hoped that the National-ranking event would serve as a good preparation for the third leg of the World Cup in Columbia.
Nice weather
“The weather is good here. Conditions will be similar in Columbia and this is a fine competition (for the build-up),” he said.
